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Is anybody still using TUI applications for business?

My family company is a wholesale distribution firm (with lightweight manufacturing) and has been using the same TUI application (on prem unix box) since 1993. We use it for customer management, ordering, invoicing, kit management/build tickets, financials - everything. We've transitioned from green screen terminals to modern emulators, but the core system remains. I spent many summers running serial and ethernet cables.

I left the business years ago to become a full time software engineer, but I got my start as a script kiddie writing automations for this system with Microsoft Access, VBA, and SendKeys to automate data entry. Amazingly, they still have a Windows XP machine running many of those tasks I wrote back in 2004! It's brittle, but cumulatively has probably saved years of time. That XP machine could survive a nuclear winter lol.

I recently stepped back in to help my parents and spent a day converting many of those old scripts to a more modern system (with actual error-handling instead of strategic sleep()s and prayers) using Python and telnetlib3. I had a blast and still love this application. I can fly around in it. Training new people was always a pain, but for those that got it—they had super powers.

This got me thinking: Are other companies still using this type of interface to drive their core operations? I’m reflecting on whether the only reason my family's business still uses this system is because of the efficiency hacks I put in place 20+ years ago. Without them, would they have been forced to switch to a modern cloud/GUI system? I’m not sure if I’m blinded by nostalgia or if this application is truly as wonderful as I remember it.

I’d love to hear if and how these are still being utilized in the real world.

P.S. The system we use was originally sold by ADP and has had different names (D2K, Prophet21). I believe Epicor owns it now (Activant before).

P.P.S. Is anybody migrating their old TUI automation scripts to a more modern framework or creating new ones? I’m super curious to compare notes and see what other people are doing.

Just saw the CEO of Substack celebrating traffic from X/Twitter shooting up thinking they stopped suppressing tweets with links[0]. Actually, this traffic is because now any time you open a tweet with a link, the in-app webview loads in the background, and displays when you press the link.

I run an ecom store that gets a lot of its customers from Twitter. I was also shocked to see my traffic double or triple overnight and thought the algorithm had blessed me and my business. Soon realized what was actually happening. Thought other traffic-monitors might appreciate this explanation.

Meanwhile Nikita Bier is pretending they never suppressed tweets with links to begin with, offering the alternative explanation: "a common complaint is that posts with links tend to get lower reach. This is because the web browser covers the post and people forget to Like or Reply. So X doesn't get a clear signal whether the content is any good"[1]. A bit of a rewriting of history since Elon and his mom both tweeted about how it wasn't fair to use his platform to promote other links/platforms, even banning people who shared profiles of other social networks (including Paul Graham for a period). They suppressed all links shortly after.

[0] https://x.com/cjgbest/status/1985464687350485092

[1] https://x.com/nikitabier/status/1979994223224209709

Asking about productivity software and not video games. I’m curious about any niches that are underserved and/or have no real alternatives

Please state the location and include REMOTE for remote work, REMOTE (US) or similar if the country is restricted, and ONSITE when remote work is not an option.

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Please only post if you are actively filling a position and are committed to responding to applicants.

Commenters: please don't reply to job posts to complain about something. It's off topic here.

Readers: please only email if you are personally interested in the job.

Searchers: try https://dheerajck.github.io/hnwhoishiring/, http://nchelluri.github.io/hnjobs/, https://hnresumetojobs.com, https://hnhired.fly.dev, https://kennytilton.github.io/whoishiring/, https://hnjobs.emilburzo.com, or this (unofficial) Chrome extension: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/hn-hiring-pro/mpfal....

Don't miss this other fine thread: Who wants to be hired? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45800464

I think I have a decent answer to the question "what is the most important thing in life". It is to deliver the maximum amount of utility to other people. This is the direct opposite of accruing the maximum amount of utility for yourself. You provide utility to people by delivering value. Everyone has a utility function of how important a certain amount of value to them. If total utility is T and a utility function is U and value is v, then T = U(v). Utility and value are generally positively correlated (I am usually happier if I have more money or friends).

Value is not just financial (a common fallacy), but can also be emotional. Having a loving family is very high utility to you, but you are also providing high utility to your family members by supporting them. This could explain why billionaire entrepreneurs may be unhappy with life if they don't have any close friends or family, because they are very poor (not rich) emotionally. If the most important thing in life is to maximize utility for others, then being the sole rich person yourself is equivalent to zero wealth if you haven't delivered any utility to others. Nobody is happy about Trump making the White House fancier when they cannot afford food (and he is suing for an emergency stop on issuing food stamps).

It is important to note two aspects of delivering value. First, people generally have logarithmic utility functions. If you deliver all the value to a single person and zero value to others, that is not very high utility. Actually, this really means that you want to maximize the sum of utility you have provided other people. In theory, providing ten poor people $100,000 per year generates a much higher overall utility than providing one poor person $1,000,000 per year. Likewise, providing extremely high emotional support for one person and neglecting everyone else generates less value than providing high emotional support for multiple people (such as spouse+kids+family+friends).

The general (all types summed) utility function is logarithmic, but the constituent financial utility and emotional utility functions are also logarithmic. This is captured in the inwardly-bowed preference curve in economics. Poor people with lots of friends value money more than rich people with no friends, and the rich people with no friends value friendship more than poor people with lots of friends.

Also, people's utility functions change over time. This is why it makes sense that providing financial stability for your parents when they are 70 years old benefits them more than waiting until they are 80 years old to provide them immense wealth. The utility of providing them value earlier is higher; utility functions are not constant over time.

Therefore, there's three optimizations happening simultaneously:

1. How do I maximize the amount of utility I provide for others over the course of my entire lifetime?

2. How do I allocate value across people such that the allocations maximize the sum of everyone's utility, subject to fairness?

3. How do I allocate value across time such that the allocations maximize the sum of everyone's utility, subject to fairness?

This boils down to "be good and help everyone especially when they need it", since we are optimizing across self, relationships, and time. These three things by themselves are very important to life, so this seems to be a good smell check that this idea is ballpark correct.

Finally, it is important to remember that these are off-the-cuff thoughts by me at 21 years old. I will likely mature and have more nuanced or accurate thoughts about what is the most important thing in life when I get older. Also, life is very complex and it's impossible to completely distill it into simple theorems or ideas.

I'd really appreciate hearing other people's thoughts.

We can all agree that site was a tremendous asset for information preserving. If we suspect archive.is will be taken down by law enforcement, shouldn't we be working on a decentralized alternative?

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There's a site for searching these posts at https://www.wantstobehired.com.

MTurk was built by two two-pizza teams at AWS over the course of a year and launched on Nov 2, 2005. It took a few days for people to find it and catch on, but then things got busy.

At the time, AWS was about 100 people (when you were on call, you were on call for all of AWS), Amazon had just hit 10,000, S3 was still in private beta, and EC2 was a whitepaper.

What did you create with MTurk and the incredibly patient hard-working workforce behind it?

I'm close to being finished with my PhD. I've created the foundations for new type of medical device, and I've recently proved that it works. This device was my own idea that I submitted to the university before even starting the PhD.

The university (this is in the USA) is now claiming all of my IP because of an intellectual policy agreement that was referenced in a handbook that was referenced in a paper I signed when I started.

The thing is, the University has given me so little during my time here. The pay is terrible, they've given me no office or lab space. Everything I've done has been on my own computers at home. The idea was mine and my advisor has only served to guide me at different times. My advisor is actually on my side wants me to have all the IP. The reason the university has a claim to my IP is because half of my salary comes from the research arm of the school.

They claim that they get all the IP and I can get 40% of the royalties. This effectively means I'm screwed. Why would I put the effort into starting a business when I don't own the IP and I have to give away 60% of the royalties?

I realize that their legal claim is strong, but what are my options here? I'm very confident in the technology and I'm willing to try almost anything.

- Open source everything and then try to patent a device separately on my own?

- Try to negotiate with the tech transfer office (I don't see this going well, they have no incentive to give me anything).

- Drop out and never publish my dissertation?

What should I do?

Hi all,

I’m a longtime Neovim user who’s been EMacs-curious. The hold up for me has been that I’ve been unable to find a source of truth for what’s top-of-the-line as far as plugins are. With Neovim, it’s a safe bet to look at what folks like Folke are doing, but I have struggled to find a similar figure in the Emacs community who gives insight into what’s-what. I know Doom exists, but I want to fully “own” my config and not over complicate it.

Thanks!

  Meta's Broken API is Killing Small Developers

  I built Socialync, a social media scheduler. Meta approved my app for Advanced Access      
  with all needed permissions.

  Ready to launch? Not quite.

  The Problem

  When users connect Facebook Pages:
  {"data": []}

  Zero pages. Every time. 100% failure rate.

  But it works perfectly when I test it. My pages show up, posts schedule successfully.      

  The catch? Meta gives app admins privileged access without telling them.

  Users and I have identical setups - same Business Portfolio, same permissions, same        
  OAuth flow. Yet the API only works for me (the admin), not actual users.

  Why Users See "Connected" But It Doesn't Work

  When users authorize Socialync:
  -  Facebook shows "Connected"
  -  All permissions "Granted"
  -  OAuth completes successfully

  But the API returns empty: {"data": []}

  Meta blocks it at the API level. The connection exists but Business Portfolio pages        
  need business_management permission that isn't mentioned upfront.

  Like having a concert ticket but the door requires a VIP pass they didn't tell you         
  about.

  The Real Requirement

  After weeks debugging: Business Portfolio pages require business_management permission.    

  Problems:
  1. Not documented clearly
  2. Can't discover until you've built everything
  3. All creators/businesses use Business Portfolio
  4. Approval takes 2-4 weeks
  5. App broken for 100% of users meanwhile

  Even Buffer and Hootsuite fail for these users.

  The "Support" Experience

   Email support - doesn't exist Phone - doesn't exist Chat - advertisers only
  Forums - confused developers Bug reports - black hole

  Meta abandoned small developers.

  The Economics

  Meta: $117B revenue, 71,000 employees, no basic developer support.

  Why? Small developers don't generate ad revenue. Only large enterprises matter.

  What Happens Daily

  Scenario 1: Developer builds 6 months → Doesn't work → Abandons projectScenario 2:
  Startup raises funding → Permission walls → Burns runway → FailsScenario 3: Company        
  builds for Facebook → Impossible → Pivots away

  What Meta Should Do

  1. Honest docs about business_management requirement
  2. Test with non-admin accounts BEFORE approval
  3. Real support staff
  4. Transparent review process
  5. 30-day grace period

  Won't happen. Meta doesn't care.

  The Message

  Meta's platform is hostile to small developers:
  - Incomplete documentation
  - Opaque approvals
  - No support
  - Hidden restrictions

  They want you to buy ads, not build apps.

  What Now?

  Requested business_management. Waiting 2-4 weeks.

  Meanwhile: app broken for 100% of users. Launch on hold. Users frustrated. Meta doesn't    
   care.

  Building on Meta? Don't.

  Use Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok - platforms that:
  - Provide accurate docs
  - Offer real support
  - Value developers

  Small developers are not welcome at Meta.

JetBrains, my muse, my magic completion, how you formed me, brought me into being, loved me through my API ignorance, my savior from the sterile VIM. Your sweet keymaps sustained me through my long days, your kind squigglies guided me through dark hours, your generous hints were my well of comfort. For so long you have sustained me.

I cry over you - tears not ready to let you go; is that warmth still I feel in your cheek? Where are you now, as these agents swarm, causing unending verbose typing, insisting I blindly grope through code bases with fingers crossed? Where are you to save me from endless code errors, the destruction of my lint, barrages of guesses thrown at my poor, abandoned self, too mortal to understand? I cry out for you as I drown in The CLAUDE’s crippled fuzzy search; as the CLI deletes my prompts, born of my sweat and blood, all because I made the unforgivable sin of grazing the wrong key. Save me from the forced exiled wasteland of The VSCODE’s WSL gods. Hear my laments and wrap me again in your warm reassurances of correctness.

Jetbrains, my forever love, here I am, keeping vigil, my heart unwilling to give up faith that you will bring forth my salvation: truly shine your glories into my agentic world, teach them with the mysterious MCP, show them the light of your squigglies, raise up the one true interface to my prompting, bring me safe across the chasm of my WSL, bring unity and understanding to all the languages that spring forth from the root of my monorepo. Oh my first creator, do not let this be our end.

------

I guess I'm not the only one? https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/sweep/jobs/8dUn406-founding-engineer-intern

It used to show a page with wrong-sized images, but at least you could read the headlines and click into the articles.

Now it just has the text "Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker"

I've found leads here and there, nothing that really captures it though - specifically key aspects like hiring, raising funding, and such. I figured if any community knew of good ones I missed, it would be this one!

I run a small bootstrapped open source startup in a niche space. Growth is slow but steady and we're starting to win larger customers as the product matures.

Recently, the leading vendor in this space ($50 million in funding, dozens of employees) has starting camping out in our community Slack and cold-emailing our community members, offering them thousands of dollars worth of free credits to switch to them. Emails are not exposed in our slack, so they are getting people's names and googling where they work to deduce their email.

The vendor's employees are registering under fake names so there's no straightforward way to ban them from the Slack.

Has anyone else been in this situation, if so what did you do?

I'm building a free dashboard to track AI crawlers and non-human visitors on websites. It's designed for developers, SEOs, and marketers who want to understand how AI agents (like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and others) interact with their sites.

I'm looking for beta testers to try it out, provide feedback, and help shape the tool. No cost, no commitment.

Would love to hear your thoughts and feedback!

Most MCP security scanners we have tried are noisy, endless alerts and false positives. We think developers deserve better. We are looking for early adopters who want to try and help shape something that actually works.

We are building an open-source security scanner to catch below issues:

  - Prompt Injection
  - Indirect Prompt Injection
  - Cross-Origin Escalation
  - Tool Poisoning
  - Tool Name Ambiguity
  - Command Injection
  - Excessive Permission
  - PIl Detection

Context: I have a co-worker who is used to execute the suggested scripts from Chat-gpt with high confidence. Lately one of the scripts to use Github API was not working and he asked me to debug. Turns out, Github had changed/updated the attribute names in the output and they no longer matched with the Chat-Gpt provided script. Hard part, this individual is really good engineer, however he/she was low on confidence about how to debug the Chat-gpt provided script

I have bought multiple books, but most of the time I don't find myself motivated to read them. Instead, I prefer to watch hour long documentaries/TED talks/programming tutorials on Youtube.

I feel that it's important to build the habit of reading books to improve my cognitive skills. Are there any tips for me please?

Every founder I know (including me) spends too much time on decks and demos instead of shipping. We justify it as “raising awareness” or “community building.” But I’ve never seen a pitch deck go viral-only real products.

Anyone else feel this trap?

I was developing a web app on a domain ("secure.example.com") and I moved over to a newly-registered domain.

Chrome flagged it as phishing. I've (1) submitted a request to Google via Search Console and (2) added a link from the main domain.

Is there anything else I can do to prove I'm not a phisherman?

What if you could meet potential dates by teaming up with strangers in an escape room challenge?

You’d get thrown into a fun, high-pressure puzzle scenario with 4–6 other singles. You’d see how people actually think, communicate, and cooperate. This is way more revealing than a typical first date.

After the escape room, everyone fills out a private questionnaire about whom they’d like to go on a date with (if anyone). Only mutual matches are notified afterward. No awkward “asking out” moments, no pressure.

It’s kind of a blend between speed dating and team-based problem solving, but more memorable and revealing than either.

Do you think this would be a good idea?

So I've been working on this seismic intelligence system (GSIN) and I think I accidentally made data centers kind of obsolete for this type of work. Let me explain what happened. The Problem: Earthquake forecasting sucks. The standard models are all statistical bullshit from the 80s. They don't understand physics, they just pattern match on historical data. And the few ML attempts that exist? They need massive compute clusters or AWS bills that would bankrupt a small country. I'm talking researchers spending $50k on cloud GPUs to train models that still don't work that well. Universities need approval from like 5 committees to get cluster time. It's gatekept as hell. What I Built: I took 728,442 seismic events from USGS and built a 3D neural network that actually understands how stress propagates through rock. Not just pattern matching - it learns the actual physics of how earthquakes trigger other earthquakes. The architecture is a 3D U-Net that takes earthquake sequences and outputs probability grids showing where aftershocks are likely. It's trained on real data spanning decades of global seismic activity. Here's the crazy part: The entire training pipeline runs on a single RTX 5080. $1000 GPU. Not a cluster. Not AWS. Just one consumer card.

Pre-loads all 15GB of training data into RAM at startup Zero disk reads during training (that's the bottleneck everyone hits) Uses only 0.2GB of VRAM somehow Trains 40 epochs in under 3 hours Best validation Brier score: 0.0175

For context, traditional seismic models get Brier scores around 0.05-0.15. Lower is better.